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Air New Zealand will pause non-stop flights between Auckland and Chicago starting later this month.
The 787-9 service will be put on hold from 31 March to 25 October due to what Air New Zealand describes as “ongoing challenges with the availability of serviceable Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines” that power its Dreamliner fleet.
The engines, which normally require heavy maintenance after 1,000 take-off and landing cycles, were found by Air New Zealand engineers to instead need maintenance after 750-850 cycles. Rolls-Royce has been unable to provide the airline with sufficient spare or replacement engines, necessitating a reduction in services.
“We know this will be disappointing for customers travelling to and from Chicago during this period, especially to those travelling over the upcoming April holiday break. It’s not a decision we’ve made lightly and we’re sorry to make this change so close to the time some customers plan to fly,” said Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty.
“Unfortunately, Air New Zealand continues to be impacted by challenges with availability of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, meaning we will now have up to three aircraft unavailable for an extended period, so we’ve had to review our schedule.
“We made the tough decision to temporarily pause the Chicago route while maintaining our schedule of up to 35 flights each week to six ports across the US and Canada, so there are still plenty of options to get to Chicago, the US, and beyond.”
Affected customers will be rebooked with connections through other US airports, and can choose to obtain full refunds or turn their bookings into credit.
“Getting our customers to their destination safely is our number one priority and to do that, we need to ensure our aircraft and engines are maintained to the highest standard. These challenges do not present a safety risk to customers flying on our 787 fleet,” said Geraghty.
“We’d like to thank customers in advance for their patience and understanding as our teams work as fast as they can to make these changes.”
This is not the only engine issue causing Air New Zealand to cut services, with changes in the maintenance plan for Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engines on A320neo and A321neo planes forcing the carrier to suspend its Auckland-Hobart route from 5 April.
Flights from Auckland to Seoul will also be paused from 1 April to allow for more resiliency when the engines on Air New Zealand’s 787 fleet require regular maintenance.
